Self-winding and self-transporting reel



Nov. 10, 1953 w. J. VAN DIJCK SELF-WINDING AND SELF-TRANSPORTiNG REEL Filed Jun e 28, 194B Mum} .1 [Ivan Di'ck yn/AZ h s A'H'orneg I Patented Nov. 10, 1953 SELF-WINDING ANgIESEIlLF-TRANSPORTING Willem J. D. van Dljck, Amsterdam, Netherlands, assignor to Shell Development Company, San Francisco, Calil'., a corporation of Delaware Application June 28, 1948, Serial No. 35,643

Claims priority, application Netherlands July 2, 194':

11 Claims.

This invention relates to a reel on which threads, filaments, ropes, tubes, tapes, and similar articles, hereinafter referred to as thread, may be continuously wound and axially advanced in the form of a plurality of generally helical turns. More particularly, the instant invention relates to a reel for temporarily winding thread, which reel is both self-winding and self-transporting. By self-winding is to be understood the characteristic that, when the reel rotates, the number of turns present on it tends automatically to be increased, so that if, for example, one turn has been placed on the reel, there will be several turns thereon after the reel has completed a number of revolutions. By self-transporting is to be understood the characteristic that, when the reel rotates, the substantially helical turns of thread are automatically shifted in the longitudinal direction of the reel, the thread thus following a helical path from one end of the reel to the other.

Reels for advancing thread comprising two sets of interdigitating bar members, each of which sets is substantially circular in crosssection, the two sets rotating about axes which are inclined and offset to each other are already known. (.See, for example, U. S. patent to Knebusch, 2,188,359.) Such reels are useful for advancing and temporarily storing thread of various types of materials, for example, as described in the said patent.

The instant invention relates, more particularly, to a reel of the type in which the surface on which the thread is wound, hereinafter referred to as the enveloping surface, is formed by a number of rollers, the center lines of which lie on a revolutionary hyperboloid of one sheet about the axis of rotation of the reel, which rollers are also positively driven to rotate individually as the reel as a whole rotates, i. e., are made to assume separate rotations relative to their support on the reel. A reel of this general type, intended for drawing out the thread shifting about the reel, is disclosed in the U. S. Patent No. 2,032,508.

In the known construction the rollers have individual rotations in the same direction as the reel as a whole; this relationship obtains because in this known reel the end of each roller at which the thread is fed to the reel is leading, i. e., is advanced circumferentially with respect to the reel as a whole toward the direction of rotation of the reel. In such arrangement a thread fed obliq y to a roller and arried alon through parts of its circumference will also be shifted sideways by the roller, this shifting being in a direction from the roller end lying ahead relative to the original direction of movement of the thread and toward the roller end which is trailing or lying behind relative to the original direction of movement of the thread. In the known device, therefore, the thread is shifted from the ends of the rollers which lead toward the ends of the rollers which trail. If the forward end or beginning of a thread is fed to a rotating roller in such a manner that the roller tries to take along the thread, the roller will tend to wind thethread around itself. If this roller is one of several constituting the surface of a reel, the roller should pass the thread on to the nextroller instead of Winding the thread around itself. Now if the adhesion of the thread to the rollers is too great, the known roller reel involves the risk that if the end of a thread is fed to the reel and contacted with the surface of one of the rollers, the thread will wind itself about this roller instead of around the reel as a whole; as a'result of this the reel will be unable to fulfill its intended function. In that case the reel must be wound with the required number of turns, e. g., by hand, before being made to rotate.

It is an object to provide a reel of the type described in which the above-stated disadvantage and risk are obviated, and which will release the thread shortly after the forward end or beginning of a thread is placed on a roller.

Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description, taken in connection with the drawing illustrating certain preferred embodiments of the invention, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of a cantilever reel constructed according to the invention, parts being shown in elevation;

-Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section of the eccentric bearing at one end of the rollers; and

Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic elevation illustrating a'modified mounting arrangement on a reduced scale.

According to the invention the risk of having the thread wind about one of the rollers when brought into contact therewith is obviated by revolving the rollers in a direction opposite to that of the direction of rotation of the reel as a whole. In other words, the rollers are made to rotate backwards as it were, while the reel as a whole rotates forwards. When the beginning of a thread is placed on a roller, the said roller will release the thread again shortly afterwards, but in the meantime, owing to the rotation of the reel as a whole, the beginning of the thread has already been seized by the next roller or rollers, so that the thread remains on the reel and is gradually wound onto it. During this process the turns should also be shifted sideways, and in order to bring this about with the given direction of rotation of the reel and the opposite individual direction of rotation of the rollers, the oblique disposition of the rollers in the reel should be such that the discharge end of a roller (toward which the thread is to be shifted) is leading, i. e., is advanced circumferentially with respect to the reel as a whole toward the direction of rotation of the reel, instead of trailing as in the known device.

As previously stated, the beginning of a thread, after being placed on a roller, is released again by the said roller as soon as the reel is rotated a distance to permit the standing part of the thread to engage the following roller, and passes onto the succeeding rollers. Now if one starts by winding a thread about the reel by hand one or more turns, these turns will, as a rule, not follow the helical path which is desirable and which would be brought about by the reel itself. By rotating the rollers backwards, as is the case with the reel according to the invention, the beginning of the thread is drawn back as it were and the irregular turns disappear, so that, when the beginning of the thread has reached the discharge end of the reel through the transport action of the reel, the first turns have also been wound correctly. This beginning of the thread may then be taken oil the reel and passed to the next contact unit, for example, the following reel or spool. This constitutes an important advantage of the reel according to the invention over other self-winding and self-transporting reels, wherein the turns originally applied by hand retain their shape until, at the discharge end of the reel, they combine to form a ring of thread which must be removed by hand and, further, involves a loss of thread.

For a given diameter of the reel there should be a certain relation between the circumferential velocity of the reel as a whole, herein referred to as V5, and the opposite circumferential velocity of the roller, herein referred to as V; (the latter velocity being measured relative to the support of the rollers), if the intended object is to be attained. If Vr=0, which implies that the rollers are stationary on their support, the thread is indeed wound onto the reel, but without being shifted sideways; in this case the reel is selfwinding, but not self-transporting," since the turns do not follow a helical path without special expedients, such as interdigitating arms. If

of the reel R, then in this special instance Vr=wr and VJ=0IR, so that:

The act t t t an lar velocity of the reel and the angular velocity of the rollers relative to the support of the rollers are equal but opposite in direction implies that the motion performed in space by a roller is primarily one of translation along a path about the axis of the reel and not one of rotation about its axis. The invention is not, however, limited to reels wherein this special relationship exists.

The desired opposite motion of reel and rollers can be brought about in several ways, for example, through a toothed gear, a belt and pulley drive, and, in a very simple manner, by gearing the individual rollers by cranks from a fixed, common eccentric.

Referring to Figs. 1-3 of the drawings, the cantilever reel is shown supported from a wall ll forming a bearing for the reel shaft II, it being understood that suitable anti-friction means (not shown) such as are well known in the art, may be employed. The shaft i I may be driven by any suitable means, such as gearing meshing with spur gear II. The reel axis is indicated by line l3. The outer end of shaft II has a disc ll rigidly attached thereto, for rotation about the axis I3 when the reel is turned. A plurality of rollers i5 are mounted at the periphery of the reel, these rollers being exteriorly cylindrical and individually rotatable about supporting spindles lt which are concentric with the rollers. The rollers have their axes or center lines on a hyperboloid of revolution of one sheet; in other words, the axes of the rollers are all skew with respect to the axis 13 and do not cross each other in space. The spindles it are mounted in the disc I. at their outer ends, so that the reel shaft II and the disc N form a reel frame. The inner ends of the spindles it are not supported.

In this embodiment the rollers are driven to rotate with respect to their support in the reel disc I in accordance with the special relationship previously described, viz., so that in the absolute sense they do not rotate relatively to their center lines. To eflect such motion each roller i5 is provided at its inner end with an eccentric bearing I I, shown more particularly in Fig. 3. A

. pin is with a spheroidal engaging bushing I! is inserted into each bearing H. The pins l8 are mounted on a disc 20 by flanged bushings 2| riveted to the disc. The disc 20 is rotatably mounted about a stationary drum or sleeve 22,

- which is fixed to the support II, by means of anti- Vr=V, neither winding nor transport would take place, as the enveloping surface of the reel would remain stationary. In view of this, an essential requirement of the reel is that V, Vr 0. Stated in another way, the circumferential velocity of the rollers with respect to the frame must be less than the absolute circumferential velocity ofthe reel as a whole. A special simplification of the mechanism bringing about the individual rotation of the rollers can be attained by making the angular velocity of the rollers relative to the reel exactly equal and opposite to the angular velocity of the reel. If the said angular velocity of the reel is w, the radius of the rollers r, and the radius friction rollers 28. The common center line of the sleeve 22 and disc I. is indicated at 24, and is eccentric with respect to the axis I! of the reel shaft. The eccentricity of the center line 24 with respect to the center line It is equal to the eccentricity of the pin II with respect to the axis of the rollers Ii. As a result of this arrangement, the disc I0 is driven through the rollers I! and pins 18 to rotate about the axis 24 at the same angular speed as the reel shaft I I, but about an axis eccentric thereto; this has the consequence that when shaft Ii completes, for example, one revolution counterclockwise, any given roller will complete one revolution clockwise with respect to the reel as a whole or, taken in the absolute sense, no rotation at all. With the rota.- tion of the reel and disc 20 the axes of the pins it move in a circular path about the axis N. The

. r mechanism comprising the disc 20, pins l8 and bearings l1 may be considered as constituting a set of connecting rods joining the cranks of the several rollers to a crank having its center line at the axis 24, which rotates about the center line It with a relative angular velocity equal and opposite to the angular velocity of the shaft H.

The bearings and bushings l'l-IQ have been so designed as to make possible a slight deflection of the center line of the pin I 3 relative to a line through the center of bearing l1 and parallel to the axis of the roller I5. This ar-. rangement is necessary because the axes of the rollers l5 and the spindles I 6 are not parallel to the axis of shaft II, but are skew with respect thereto. The direction of rotation of'the reel during operation is such that the discharge ends of the rollers on the outer end of the reel (i. e., to the right in the drawing) are leading, i. e., are circumferentially ahead of the feed ends at the supported end of the reel, as a result of which the threads leave the reel on the outer end of the reel.

The mechanism comprising the disc 20, with the pins I8 and bearings i 1, may be replaced by other mechanisms having a similar function. Thus, use may be made of pins connected to the rollers [5 at the center lines of the bearings l1 and running in a fixed, circular groove having its center at the axis 24.

A hood 25 may be fixed to the sleeve 22 to protect the reel, for example, against liquid which may be applied to the thread for treatment thereof.

The rollers may be made of various materials, for example light metal, hard rubber or plastic, such as Bakelite, and various types of surfaces may be provided for the rollers, for example, smooth, roughened, or grooved surfaces, depending upon the particular treatment to which the thread is subjected. These treatments in themselves are known in the art and form no part of this invention; hence, neither the treatment nor the means of applying treating fluids are described herein. In certain treatments it is desired that the thread undergo considerable variation in length during transport across the reel, for example, in connection with shrinking or stretching; in such cases the rollers will not be arranged to conform to the central part of a hyperboloid revolution, but to another part more or less distant from the central part. Thus, the central part of the hyperboloid is plane containing the mutual perpendicular or shortest distance between the axis l3 and the skew axes of the rollers I5. The rollers may be mounted on the disc [4 so that this central part lies at the midpoint of the shaft ll. However, when thread is to be shrunk, this central part may be made to lie farther toward the outer (i. e., right) end, or even out beyond the disc I 4 when thread is to be stretched, it may be made to lie farther toward the inner (i. e., the left) end, or even beyond the disc 20. Moreover, as previously indicated, the rollers may also be driven in some other manner and at a different speed in relation to the speed of rotation of the reel.

In the cantilever reel shown the rollers I5 and spindles l6 are supported by the disc [4 at the outer, unsupported end of the reel, while the mechanism for effecting individual rotation of the rollers is located at the supported end of the reel. It is also possible to support the rollers l5 and spindles I 6 from the left (sup- 6 V ported) end of the reel and the pins l8, parts 20-43 at the right end, in which case the eccentric sleeve 22 may have to be supported by an auxiliary bracket. Such an arrangement is shown in Fig. 4, wherein the disc l4 carrying the spindles I6 is fixed to the shaft II at the end near the support In, and the eccentric sleeve 22 is externally supported by a bracket 26. The disc 20, carrying the pins I8, is mounted for rotation in the sleeve 22, as before.

The members for supporting the rollers and for bringing about their individual motions may also be placed both at one end of the rollers. As has been said, the mechanism selected for effecting such motion may differ considerably from that shown in the drawings, which was selected as illustrative. As an example, a sun and planet gear, in which the planet wheels are fixed to the rollers, while the sun wheel is given a rotary motion at such a rate that the rollers rotate backwards relatively to the reel as a whole, may be employed. If a gear with internal teeth is chosen for the sun wheel, the latter may be designed at a stationary, toothed annulus, provided proper dimensions are selected. Such gearing arrangements being known per se, it is not thought to be necessary to describe them in greater detail herein.

Instead of being cylindrical, the rollers may be given a different shape, for example, a conical shape.

A reel according to the invention is particularly suitable for carrying out a continuous or substantially continuous spinning process for synthetic threads, e. g., a process in which the spun thread successively undergoes the various treatments required, each treatment taking place during the presence of the thread on a reel or a series of reels.

I claim as my invention:

1. A self-winding and self-transporting reel comprising a reel frame mounted for rotation with respect to a support about a reel axis, a

i plurality of rollers having continuous surfaces and disposed to form the enveloping surface of the reel journalled in said frame for individual rotation with respect to said frame about individual axes which are skew with respect to said reel axis, said rollers having feed ends for receiving a thread and discharge ends for discharging said thread, means for rotating said reel frame about the reel axis in a direction causing the discharge ends of the rollers to be circumferentially advanced with respect to the feed ends of the respective rollers and means for rotating said rollers about said individual axes in a direction opposite to the said direction of rotation of the reel frame with respect to said support and at a circumferential velocity with respect to the frame which is less than the absolute circumferential velocity of the reel as a whole.

2. A self-winding and self-transporting reel comprising a reel frame mounted for rotation with respect to a support about a reel axis, a plurality of rollers forming the enveloping surface of the reel journalled in said frame for individual rotation about their own axes with respect to said frame having feed ends for receiving thread and discharge ends for discharging said thread, said axes of the rollers lying on a hyperboloid of revolution of one sheet having its axis on said reel axis with the discharge ends of the rollers advanced circumferentially beyond the respective feed ends in the normal direction of rotation of the reel frame, and means for rotating said rollers with respect to said frame about said axes in .a direction opposite to the said direction of rotation of the reel frame with respect to said support and at a circumferential velocity with respect to the reel frame which is less than the absolute circumferential velocity of the reel as a whole.

3. The reel according to claim 2 wherein the means for rotating said rollers with respect to said frame comprises a guide mounted for rotation about an axis eccentric with respect to said reel axis, and an engaging member for each roller engaging said guide and, further, engaging its respective roller eccentrically with respect to the axis of rotation of the respective rollers, whereby each roller is given an individual angular velocity equal to the angular velocity of the reel as a whole.

4. The reel according to claim 2 wherein the means for rotating said rollers comprises a disc mounted for rotation about an axis eccentric with respect to said reel axis, a bearing on each roller disposed eccentrically with respect to the roller axis and at an eccentricity equal to the eccentricity of the disc with respect to the reel axis, and a pin for each roller secured to said disc and in moving engagement with the eccen tric bearing in the respective roller, whereby each roller is given an individual angular velocity equal to the angular velocityof the reel as a whole.

5. The reel according to claim 2 wherein the central portion of said hyperboloid lies substantially at the midpoint of the reel.

6. The reel according to claim 2 wherein the rollers have continuously cylindrical surfaces.

7. The reel according to claim 2 wherein the means for rotating said rollers with respect to said frame is arranged to rotate each rollerwith an individual angular velocity equal to the angular velocity of the reel as a whole.

8. The reel according to claim '1 wherein the means for rotating the said rollers comprises an engaging member engaging each roller eccentrically with respect to the axis of rotation of the respective roller, and means for guiding said engaging member about a circular path having equal eccentricity about the said reel axis.

9. A self-winding and self-transporting reel comprising a reel shaft mounted for rotation about its axis with respect to a support, a plurality of rollers forming the enveloping surface of the reel, said rollers having feed ends for receiving a thread and discharge ends for discharging said thread. an individual supporting journal for each roller extending from only one end of each roller and supportingly connected to said shaft at one end of the respective roller. all said journals being connected to the shaft at the same end of the reel, said rollers being disposed so that their axes lie on a hyperboioid of revolution of one sheet having its axis coincident with said reel shaft with the discharge ends of the rollers advanced circumferentially beyond the respective feed ends in the normal direction of rotation of the reel shaft, and means engaging the ends of said rollers away from said ends from which the journals extend for rotating the rollers individually with respect to said reel shaft in a direction opposite to the said direction of rotation of the reel shaft with respect to said support and at a circumferential velocity which is less than the absolute circumferential velocity of the reel as a whole.

10. The reel according to claim 9 wherein the reel shaft is joumalled in said support to provide a cantilever support at the end away from said iournalled ends of the rollers.

11. The reel according to claim 9 wherein the reel shaft is journalled in said support to provide a cantilever support at the same end as said joumalled ends of the rollers.

WILLEM J. D. van DUCK.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,920,224 Weaver Aug. 1, 1033 2,302,508 Sordelli Nov. 17, 1942 2,380,526 Hoagland July 31, 1945 2,543,031 Kuljian Feb. 27, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 222,773 Switzerland Oct. id, 1942 539,200 Great Britain Sept. i, 1941 

